Tense Marking and Spontaneous Speech Measures in Spanish Specific Language Impairment: A Discriminant Function Analysis

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 352-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Grinstead ◽  
Alisa Baron ◽  
Mariana Vega-Mendoza ◽  
Juliana De la Mora ◽  
Myriam Cantú-Sánchez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Discriminant Function ◽  
Discriminant Function Analysis ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Function Analysis ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Specific Language

scholarly journals Nonmainstream Dialect Use and Specific Language Impairment

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janna B. Oetting ◽  
Janet L. McDonald
Keyword(s):  
Discriminant Function ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
American English ◽  
Surface Characteristics ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Question Formation ◽  
Important Direction ◽  
Surface Patterns ◽  
Main Effects

Most work looking at specific language impairment (SLI) has been done in the context of mainstream dialects. This paper extends the study of SLI to two nonmainstream dialects: a rural version of Southern African American English (SAAE) and a rural version of Southern White English (SWE). Data were language samples from 93 4- to 6-year-olds who lived in southeastern Louisiana. Forty were classified as speakers of SAAE, and 53 were classified as speakers of SWE. A third were previously diagnosed as SLI; the others served as either agematched (6N) or language-matched (4N) controls. The two dialects differed in frequency of usage on 14 of the 35 coded morphosyntactic surface patterns; speakers of these dialects could be successfully discriminated (94%) from each other in a discriminant analysis using just four of these patterns. Across dialects, four patterns resulted in main effects that were related to diagnostic condition (SLI vs. 6N), and a slightly different set of four patterns showed effects that were related to developmental processes (4N vs. 6N). More interestingly, the surface characteristics of SLI were found to manifest in the two dialects in different ways. A discriminant function based solely on SAAE speakers tended to misclassify SWE children with SLI as having normal language, and a discriminant function based on SWE speakers tended to misclassify SAAE unaffected children as SLI. Patterns within the SLI profile that cut across the two dialects included difficulties with tense marking and question formation. The results provide important direction for future studies and argue for the inclusion of contrastive as well as noncontrastive features of dialects within SLI research.

A Preliminary Investigation of Reduplication in Children with Specific Language Impairment

1985 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Lahey ◽  
Judy Flax ◽  
Gloria Schlisselberg
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Whole Word

The frequency of reduplication was examined in relation to syllable maintenance, final consonant production, and whole word repetitions in two preschool children with specific language impairment—one who reduplicated frequently and one who did so infrequently. Spontaneous speech was sampled for a period of 18 months. During the single-word utterance period, reduplication was associated with infrequent production of final consonants but frequent maintenance of multisyllabic structure. After the single-word utterance period the child who had frequently reduplicated during this period ceased reduplication but frequently produced whole word repetitions. Infrequent production of final consonants continued, but syllable maintenance decreased. The data are discussed in relation to hypotheses about the function of reduplication and the function of whole word repetitions in language development.

scholarly journals Alternative Tense and Agreement Morpheme Measures for Assessing Grammatical Deficits During the Preschool Period

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 542-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Gladfelter ◽  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity And Specificity ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Composite Measure ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Preschool Period ◽  
Preschool Age Children

Purpose P. A. Hadley and H. Short (2005) developed a set of measures designed to assess the emerging diversity and productivity of tense and agreement (T/A) morpheme use by 2-year-olds. The authors extended 2 of these measures to the preschool years to evaluate their utility in distinguishing children with specific language impairment (SLI) from their typically developing (TD) peers. Method Spontaneous speech samples from 55 children (25 with SLI, 30 TD) at 2 different age levels (4;0–4;6 [years;months] and 5;0–5;6) were analyzed, using a traditional T/A morphology composite that assessed accuracy, and the Hadley and Short measures of Tense Marker Total (assessing diversity of T/A morpheme use) and Productivity Score (assessing productivity of major T/A categories). Results All 3 measures showed acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity. In addition, similar differences in levels of productivity across T/A categories were seen in the TD and SLI groups. Conclusion The Tense Marker Total and Productivity Score measures seem to have considerable utility for preschool-age children, in that they provide information about specific T/A morphemes and major T/A categories that are not distinguished using the traditional composite measure. The findings are discussed within the framework of the gradual morphosyntactic learning account.

Verb inflections and noun phrase morphology in the spontaneous speech of Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment

2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
LISA M. BEDORE ◽  
LAURENCE B. LEONARD
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
General Linguistic ◽  
Verb Inflections ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

Spanish-speaking preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI) were compared to typically developing same-age peers (TD-A) and younger typically developing children matched for mean length of utterance (TD-MLU) in terms of their use of grammatical morphology in spontaneous speech. The children with SLI showed high levels of accuracy on present tense and past tense (preterite) verb inflections. However, their use of definite articles and direct object clitics was significantly more problematic than for either the TD-MLU or the TD-A children. Substitutions and omissions were observed, especially in contexts requiring plural articles and clitics. Many of the details of the observed Spanish SLI profile were predicted by Wexler's (Extended) Unique Checking Constraint (EUCC) proposal. Remaining details in the data could be accommodated by making additional assumptions within the same general linguistic framework as the EUCC. Some of the differences between the findings from Spanish and those from previous studies on related languages such as Italian suggest the need for clinical assessment and intervention procedures that are shaped as much by language-specific details as by the language's typology.

Specific Language Impairment and Grammatical Morphology

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 1185-1192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Bedore ◽  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Function Analysis ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Verb Morphology ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance ◽  
Finite Verb

Discriminant function analysis was employed to determine if grammatical morpheme production could be used to classify preschool-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typically developing language skills. Three variables were included in the discriminant analysis: a finite verb morpheme composite, a noun morpheme composite, and mean length of utterance in morphemes. The children with SLI and age-matched controls were discriminated with high levels of accuracy, though the three variables did not yield identical classifications. Across two samples of typically developing children and children with SLI, the verb morpheme composite showed sensitivity exceeding 85% and specificity of 100%. In light of these results and growing evidence that problems with finite verb morphology continue into the school years in children with SLI, the verb morpheme composite was considered to hold promise as a clinical marker for SLI.

Some influences on the grammar of English- and Italian-speaking children with specific language impairment

1988 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence B. Leonard ◽  
Letizia Sabbadini ◽  
Virginia Volterra ◽  
Jeanette S. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Surface Characteristics ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Grammatical Morphemes ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Syntactic Differences

ABSTRACTThe spontaneous speech of both English-speaking (E) and Italian-speaking (I) children with specific language impairment (SLI) was examined to determine (a) whether phonological factors influence the grammatical morpheme use of ISLI children, as has been found for ESLI children, and (b) whether ESLI and ISLI children show similar syntactic abilities at the same level of mean utterance length as measured in words. The results indicated that word-final consonants adversely influenced the ISLI children's tendency to use articles – the only Italian grammatical morphemes in which word-final consonants are required. There was no evidence of syntactic differences between the ESLI and ISLI children. However, both groups of children seemed to have a problem using morphemes that constituted unstressed elements in a sentence even though the grammatical and semantic function of these elements varied across the two languages. The findings suggest that a speech production or perception component may be playing a greater role than previously believed in contributing to SLI children's well-documented expressive grammatical difficulties, though the specific effects of this factor will vary as a function of the surface characteristics of the language being acquired.

Lexical Diversity in the Spontaneous Speech of Children With Specific Language Impairment

2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 927-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda J. Owen ◽  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Sample Size ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Developmental Differences ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

The lexical diversity of children with specific language impairment (SLI) (ages 3 years 7 months to 7 years 3 months) was compared to that of normally developing same-age peers and younger normally developing children matched according to mean length of utterance in words (MLUw). Lexical diversity was calculated from spontaneous speech samples using D, a measure that uses repeated calculations of type-token ratio (TTR) to estimate how TTR changes as the speech samples increase in size. When D computations were based on 250-word samples, developmental differences were apparent. For both children with SLI and typically developing children, older subgroups showed higher D scores than younger subgroups, and subgroups with higher MLUws showed higher D scores than subgroups with lower MLUws. Children with SLI did not differ from same-age peers. At lower MLUw levels, children with SLI showed higher D scores than younger typically developing children matched for MLUw. The developmental sensitivity of D notwithstanding, comparisons using 100-utterance samples, in which the number of lexical tokens varied as a function of the children's MLUws, and comparisons between 250- and 500-word samples revealed the possible influence of sample size on this measure. However, analysis of the effect sizes using smaller and larger samples revealed that D is not affected by sample size to the degree seen for more traditional measures of lexical diversity.

scholarly journals Syllable structure development of toddlers with expressive specific language impairment

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
AIMÉE BAIRD PHARR ◽  
NAN BERNSTEIN RATNER ◽  
LESLIE RESCORLA
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Structure Development ◽  
Specific Language

A total of 35 children – 20 with expressive specific language impairment (SLI-E) and 15 typically developing (TD) peers – were compared longitudinally from 24 to 36 months with respect to their production of syllable shapes in 10-minute spontaneous speech samples. SLI-E 24-month-olds predominantly produced earlier developing syllable shapes containing vowels, liquids, and glides. TD 24-month-olds and SLI-E 36-month-olds produced approximately the same proportion of syllable types, with the exception of consonant clusters, where TD 24-month-olds produced more than SLI-E 36-month-olds. TD children at 36 months showed the greatest use of syllable shapes containing two different consonants and consonant clusters. Detailed analyses revealed that SLI-E children produced fewer syllable shapes containing final consonants, more than one consonant type, and consonant clusters. Furthermore, the children with SLI-E were found to vocalize less often than their TD peers. The possible relationships between these findings, SLI-E children's concomitant deficits in morphology and syntax, and the implications for diagnosis and remediation are discussed.

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